By MONICA LANGLEY and NEAL E. BOUDETTE,Wall Street Journal
Me and my guys will take it from here
Inside a windowless,ornate room Thursday just across from the Oval Office,President Barack Obama and a group of senior economic advisers began the job of remaking the American automobile industry.
The first order of business:Oust General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner. It “wasn’t the hardest decision,”said one government official.
Steven Rattner,a former investment banker who is heading the administration’s auto restructuring;chief economic adviser Lawrence Summers;and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner were among those gathered around the polished wood table of the Roosevelt Room in the White House’s West Wing. They were there to decide under what conditions the government would continue to prop up once-powerful Detroit car companies GM and Chrysler LLC.